Congressional Quarterly’s experts say Democrats Gov. Chris Governor and 8th District congressional candidate Darcy Burner are “increasingly better positioned” than their Republican opponents. Gregoire almost lost to Republican Dino Rossi four years ago and Burner came close to Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, in 2006.

But analysts now say that the Democrats have upped their chances of winning as the state GOP party faces structural problems and GOP efforts to appeal to the state’s large number of moderate voters have been hampered by their strong conservative base.

CQ Politics is now changing its rating of the Washington state Governor’s race from No Clear Favorite to Leans Democrat and Washington’s 8th District rating from Leans Republican to No Clear Favorite.